9/09/2006

Nepotastic

By HUMINT

Let me share a personal story of great importance to me. This is an admission of an internal political conflict that I believe is loosely relevant. One cold day after GWB won his first Presidential Election – I lost a bet with a friend from the Sudan. It was a bet I proposed about American history. I’m not prone to betting nor do I often make them. Indeed gambling belittles the social perception of money, but I digress. To my point - I have an ideological connection to American history that doesn’t always fit my Weltanschauung. I bet $20 that GWB was the first son of an American President to become President. The election reeked of nepotism and I ignorantly dismissed it as implausible.

I obviously lost. I was angry that a single American family had two children serve as President in America – in my time. What are these politics, I thought. “Do Americans want to return to Monarchy?” I asked my friends. The Bush family would not become royalty in my time! No sir! The American infatuation with JFK’s Camelot was enough to make me ill. I was as adamant about how democracies should manifest their freedom – in terms of politics – as I am now. The reason why I was wrong about GWB is precisely why I lost the bet with my friend from the Sudan. While I was deeply invested in Middle Eastern politics before 9-11-01, I was less invested in my own nation’s history and ideology. The reality is, in America, we choose our ideological parents. Biology is important but rarely defining. Case in point, Benjamin Franklin’s son was a royalist. Franklin worked actively for American Independence. He naturally thought his son William, serving as the Royal governor of New Jersey, would agree with his views. William did not. William remained a Loyal Englishman. This caused a rift between father and son which was never healed.

In our post 9-11 world, I've been forced to consider the relationship between fathers and sons as American leaders. I've come to believe that GWB has chosen Abraham Lincoln as his ideological father. What I understand of Lincoln and GWB, they appear to share a similar Weltanschauung, albeit in an extremely different context. Lincoln forwarded America’s critical mission during its domestic phase. GWB has accepted the American mission in its international phase. His father was offered the same opportunity but declined it. That’s why I see GWB’s ideological father as Lincoln.

George Bush has distinguished himself so completely and fantastically from my original fears of nepotism, I am forced to ask "Who is his Fredrick Douglas"?